Female Knights in Shining Armor

The Lesbian Historic Motif Podcast: Episode 15d

Does your heart thrill to the clash of swords, the gleam of sunlight on a polished helm, and the snap of silken banners in the breeze at a tournament field? And then the helmet is removed by the victorious knight to reveal a fair face and a tumble of flowing locks and the crowd gasps to know a woman is champion? Well this podcast is for you.

In this episode we talk about

Joan of Arc and what wearing armor meant symbolically for her

The 12th century Spanish “Order of the Hatchet”, an order of woman knights

The gang of ladies who showed up at a 14th century tournament in England in men’s clothing

A 13th century German tale of women holding a tournament when their men were off at war

The French romance of Yde and Olive and how a woman knight won the hand of a king’s daughter in marriage

The Romance of Silence, which includes an exceedingly modern-sounding debate between personifications of Nature and Nurture for they loyalty of a girl raised as a boy

Amazon knights in Renaissance epic poems such as Orlando Furioso and The Faerie Queene, who attracted the love of fair ladies